Behold,
two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem. They talked with each other about all of these things which had happened. While they talked and questioned together, Jesus himself came near, and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?” One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things which have happened there in these days?”
Luke 24:13-18
Luke 24 [8.] They remembered his words, returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles. These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn’t believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened.
Luke 24 [13.] Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem. They talked with each other about all of these things which had happened. While they talked and questioned together, Jesus himself came near, and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?”
Luke 24 [18.] One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things which have happened there in these days?”
Luke 24 [19.] He said to them, “What things?” They said to him, “The things concerning Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Also, certain women of our company amazed us, having arrived early at the tomb; and when they didn’t find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of us went to the tomb, and found it just like the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”
Meaning:
The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is one of the best loved passages in Luke’s Gospel. Mark mentions it in one sentence: “he was revealed in another form to two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country” (Mark 16:12). Luke tells it in full. These opening verses set the scene: two sad travellers, a stranger who joins them, and a question that opens their hearts.
- “Two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus”
“That very day” was the Sunday of the resurrection, the day the women found the tomb empty. The two travellers were not among the eleven apostles but were part of the wider group of disciples who had heard the women’s report (Luke 24:9). They were walking about sixty stadia, around eleven kilometres or seven miles, from Jerusalem. Perhaps they were going home after the Passover, leaving behind a city where their hopes had died.
- “They talked with each other about all of these things”
As they walked, they went over the events again and again: the arrest, the trial, the crucifixion, the strange news of the empty tomb. Grief often works this way, turning the same painful facts over without finding sense in them. Their discussion was sincere, and it was into this honest conversation that Jesus came. He had promised, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them” (Matthew 18:20).
- “But their eyes were kept from recognizing him”
Jesus himself came near and walked with them, yet they did not know him. Luke says their eyes “were kept” from recognizing him, which suggests that God was holding back their sight for a time. Earlier, when Jesus spoke about his coming death, Luke wrote that “It was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it” (Luke 9:45). In this story recognition would come later, in the right way and at the right time, when he broke bread with them (Luke 24:31). First they needed to hear him explain the Scriptures.
- “What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?”
Jesus began with a question. He knew the answer, but he invited them to pour out their hearts. The word “sad” describes faces darkened with sorrow; they even stood still. The psalmist knew this kind of heaviness and spoke to his own soul: “Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God!” (Psalm 42:5). Jesus meets people in their sorrow and lets them speak.
- “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know?”
One of them, named Cleopas, answered with surprise. The crucifixion of Jesus had been public news all over the city during the feast. Cleopas may be the same person as Clopas, whose wife Mary stood by the cross (John 19:25), though this is not certain. There is gentle irony in his question. The one he called a stranger was the only person who truly knew what had happened in those days and why.
The Significance of Luke 24:13-18
- Jesus walks with the discouraged
The risen Lord did not first appear in the temple or before Pilate, but on a dusty road to two disappointed followers. He still comes alongside those whose hopes have been shattered, often before they recognise him.
- Bringing our sorrow to him
Jesus asked them what they were talking about, and he listened. Prayer is often like this: telling the Lord honestly what troubles us, even when we do not understand what he is doing. He already knows, but he invites us to speak.
Cross-References:
Mark 16:12: “he was revealed in another form to two of them, as they walked.” Mark’s brief account of the Emmaus appearance.
Matthew 18:20: “there I am in the middle of them.” Jesus is present when his followers gather in his name.
Psalm 42:5: “Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God!”
Conclusion: In Luke 24:13-18 two discouraged disciples walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus on the day of the resurrection, talking over everything that had happened. Jesus joins them, though they do not recognise him, and gently asks why they are sad. Cleopas wonders how any visitor could not know. The passage shows the risen Lord drawing near to sorrowing people and inviting them to share their hearts.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible